Counter-intuitive Marketing: Disney Strikes Again!

If anyone knows how to market products and build a brand, its Disney. Disney World has been making 'Dreams Come True' since 1971; when the park first opened. The key to Disney's success is to keep the customer coming back. 

For those of you that don't remember the blog post I wrote in April of 2012 on 'Discover Disney: Decoy Marketing?' I compared how Disney was using a NeuroMarketing tactic known as decoy marketing to help push the release of their Discover Disney ticket for Florida Residents. As I have come to learn, this ticket becomes available a few days after the New Year, every year, just in time for my annual family Disney trip.

I followed the 'Discover Disney' ticket prices for 2012 and 2013 and was anxious to see how 2014's release compared; and Disney threw in another NeuroMarketing technique! See if you can spot the trend:

2012 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $99

4-Day Pass: $129

2013 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $119

4-Day Pass: $129

2014 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $129

4-Day Pass: $149

Most of you will say that Disney raised the price by $10 & $20 a ticket... Any other takers? The $129 price point. When they ran this 'special' in 2012 we learned that more people would purchase the $99 tickets than the $129 tickets because of the way consumers interpret the price. $99 doesn't sound as much as $129, it cost an extra $30 for another day...hmm... No, we will only purchase the $99. So they learned from this in 2012 and tested the results in 2013. They moved the price of the 3-Day ticket up (to $119) but kept the price of the 4-Day ticket the same ($129). Now the difference to stay an extra day is only $10.. "Okay, let's stay one extra day", is the response they are getting from the consumers. So this year, they used the same $129 price point that sold better in 2013 and used that as the base price for this years tickets then raised the price on the 4-Day. So rather than just raising the prices across the board, they used the same price we paid last year, and slightly raised the price on the 4-Day option. 

This technique is all about relativity; how the consumer see the product vs. the price. You paid the same amount as last year, you just got one day less. So they reel you in 3 years earlier at $99 then they keep you coming back by small increases in price so it doesn't jump from $99 to $149 then the consumer says 'ouch, no thanks'... But when you do small increments over a long period of time, the pain associated with the increased price doesn't hurt so much. So aside from great marketing and being the most MAGICAL place in world, they have really made an attempt to keep the Florida Residents coming back with their different and "cheap" ticket options. Just be careful to read into things before you just purchase them, you maybe being baited in by psychological marketing... or pixie dust :) 

Pizza Psychology: Is Domino's Picking Your Pizza or Your Brain?

If you are a frequent reader of the Tandem Interactive Blog, you are familiar with all our team and know that my main focus is on NeuroMarketing. When you are conscious of the tactics it is very easy to identify all of the big corporate names that are using these tactics to their advantage to help with their sales and branding. But if you are not familiar with NeuroMarketing, you are just a pawn in this game these companies are playing.

In the midst of the holiday weekend, I found myself juggling between work, shopping, family, and the like that I thought it was time to just order a pizza and relax. To my surprise I find myself inspired by my Domino's Pizza purchase and made it my focus for this blog post. Everything about the Domino's experience is based off of a NeuroMarketing platform. Let's exam the entire process:

When you go to their website for an online order, this is the home page (on Dec. 2, 2013):

They give the user exactly what they are looking for: 

1. Pictures of food - the user is obviously hungry so the pictures simulate the users appetite to help initiate the purchase. They do not limit the photos to just pizza, but they include all of their food options. 
2. Pricing- The pricing is very clear, bright red (to capture the users attention), and bigger than any other text on the page. 
3. Emotions - they use the St. Jude Meal Deal to help push more purchases. You have the option of adding a $1 donation to any order, but they put together a package of 2 pizza ($5.99 each), bread ($2.99) and a 2-liter ($2.69)... So for a meal that actually cost you $17.66 plus the $1 donation to St. Jude's (so $18.66 total) is actually $1.33 more when it is labeled the 'St. Jude Meal Deal'. So a person that is generous or a supporter of the cause, would see this promotion and naturally think, let me get this meal deal and help the cause... Not realizing that they are actually paying 7% more for this meal than what it would cost to individually add these items to the cart seperatly in addition to the donation. You may think that $1.33 isn't that much more, that you may not care to pay the extra, but it may be better to think of this number in a percentage so you can see how much the different may be. Let's think that 100 people a day will purchase the 'St. Jude Meal Deal' so a total of $2000 in sales; and an extra 7% or $140 that was made. You case see how slowly this starts to add up. So a meal deal that seems like you are contributing to a good cause, you are actually the victim of 'Feel Good Marketing'; the theory that you made a purchase that made you feel good although you may have been baited into.

So after you make the purchase, the psychology doesn't end there. To my surprise, once the pizza is delivered you get your box of yummy goodness in box and you go to open the box and what is the first thing you see before the pizza... Instagram. Directions on how to take the perfect #PizzaPics, how to tag Domino's, and how to share your experience. So here they are using you and your social media to help promote their business through photos. So you are telling your friends, "Hey look at what I just got for lunch!"; which in turn could possible make them want to order a pizza. Then you are endorsing the brand of Domino's by saying, "Look at my positive experience". 

Don't feel like you are a victim of Domino's awesome marketing because I could have never wrote this post if I too wasn't roped in! You can see pictures of my pizza and more at #PizzaPics on Instagram and until December 8th you can take advantage of 50% off of any pizza :)  For more tips and tactics on NeuroMarketing and all marketing keep up to date with the Tandem Interactive Blog! Have a great week and Happy Holidays! 

Pubcon Kicks Off with NeuroMarketing

For those of you that aren't familiar with the conference Pubcon, it is the premier social media and optimization conference and expo. Pubcon is held twice a year in Las Vegas and New Orleans; and is slowly growing to appear in other locations nationally. With over 200 speakers and 1,800 attendees it is definitely the most recognized digital media conference in the US. 

This year was my first time attending the conference and I had one person that I was anxious to see; Roger Dooley of Dooley Direct LLC and the author of Brainfluence (the most applauded Neuromarketing book available on the market). As most of you may know, I am a Neuromarketer and an advocate of how psychology and sales are related; and I believe that when used properly neuromarketing can be an asset to your business. 

Roger Dooley was the keynote speaker that kicked off the Pubcon conference on Monday in Las Vegas at the Master Training. His keynote was focused on this: "SEO, SEM and Social Media help drive traffic to your site. And if you want more revenue you need to turn up the traffic or turn up the conversions." The key to conversions is persuasion. 

Roger Dooley likes to look at the purchase cycle as a slide, 'The Persuasion Slide'. And this slide consist of 4 different features: 1) gravity, 2) nudge, 3) angle, and 4) friction. 

• Gravity is the initial motivation that brings the consumer to you.

• Nudges are little things that your business does to help motivate them to convert. Nudges are ALWAYS about the consumer, NOT ABOUT YOU! Nudges must be seen to provide the initial motivation to start the process.

• Angles are both conscious and subconscious factors that help motivate the consumer to buy. Some conscious factors are free gifts, sales, stats likes savings or other rational decision factors that could help pursuade the consumer from browsing to buying. Subconscious  factors that motivate the consumer without the 'in your face' effect; like emotions, psychology and brain bugs. 

• Friction is anything that prevents someone from purchasing. Some examples of friction are too many lines to fill out on a form or making the conversion sequence harder than it needs to be. Use choice architecture to help minimize friction by creating a 'default' choice.

Roger Dooley is an amazing pioneer of neuromarketing, by far my favorite to follow. His 'Persuasion Slide' is a great concept and has the ability to help promote conversions. If you want to try testing a neuromarketing theory on your website or if you have questions regarding neuromarketing, please contact me at BDiaz@Tandem-Interactive.com Have a great weekend!

Twix New Marketing Campaign

So I have obviously not written in a while, and just now I am in the middle of SEO and link building reports when I get served a 'verify an email address' and I get taken by surprise. I go to Yahoo! to log into an email address and confirm the email just sent to me when I see the ad and I can't help but stop E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G I am doing to blog about it.

 

Some of you may have already been exposed to the new Twix campaign about 'choosing a side'. I am absolutely mind blown by this NeuroMarketing technique that they are use for their campaign. If you are not seeing the extent of my enthusaism yet, let me elaborate on what they are doing. They have not come out with a new product. They did not make a 'limited edition' version of their signature candy. They have not done anything new or different and they have not changed or modified the product AT ALL. They have taken their product and made a completely new and distinct NeuroMarketing campaign based on a the same product they have always had but added a significant way to engage their product lovers.

 

Twix is a cookie covered with caramel and chocolate; and they always come in a set of two. They have designed their whole new campaign to make people choose between the left Twix or the right Twix. They are exactly the same product the only difference is their position in the wrapper. But they have used the neurological concept of "them vs. us" marketing (similar to Apple's technique) but against themselves. They are creating a divison between its competitors and consumers  and then inventing a new and stronger sense of attachment to its 'unique' product.

 

 

 

If you look at their ad, even though they are creating a divison amoungst themselves they are also subconsciously dividing Twix against all other candies through their content. The whole ad uses phrases such as "one of a kind", "unique process", "..makes us different...", and "...makes us stand out...". They are constantly reinforcing how different not only Twix consumers are but that 'LEFT' Twix consumers are even more unique.

 

But before you even get to see their ad or understand the technique they are using to try to get engagement from their customers, you will see "Now Introducing Left Twix and Right Twix". When you get served with an ad like this you think "Well I know what Twix are... But what is the 'left' and 'right' Twix?". That's the when the curisousity sets in and you are engaged and left trying to figure out what they are asking; which is the purpose of any marketing campiagn - ENGAGEMENT from the targeted audience. And this campaign does just that; so much that I had to stop everything that I was doing to Google what Left & Right Twix were and then to Blog about how fascinated I was! So thank you Twix for catching my interest so much to motivate my Blog post.

 

Keep up with the latest blog post by all the Tandem Interactive Team here :) Email me directly at BDiaz@Tandem-Interactive.com if you have any questions about NeuroMarketing or would like to design a campaign with neurological tactics. Have a great weekend!

 

 

'Feel Good' Marketing = Coach Factory's Tactics

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that it feels good to buy things at good prices. 67% of American's admit to buying items that they did not intend on purchasing if they felt like they were getting a good deal. This marketing strategy is called 'Feel Good' Neuromarketing and there is one company that holds the gold metal in this tactic: Coach Factory Outlets. 

Many women are subscribed to numerous websites for deals, coupons, sales and promotions. When you subscribe to these sites they send you emails on occasion to promote whatever sale is occurring. Coach Factory store's send several emails per week notify the subscribers of different sales that are occurring. The newest sale intrigued my inner marketer, so I decided to engage in the sale. Below I have attached the screenshot of the Coach Factory online sale that is currently running. If you go to the website (www.CoachFactory.com) you have to be a subscribed member before you are given access to the website and its sale. 

TACTIC 1: Get a conversion. The potential buyer is on your site because they are already interested in your promotion, now you are funneling them to provide an email address to subscribe to the site in order to gain access to the website and sale. This tactic does two things for Coach, (1) it allows their user to believe that this is a 'members only' and 'exclusive' sale to them. Because you are a member we are giving you this % off our items. This is initiating the 'feel good' experience that you are aiming for in this marketing strategy. (2) If the potential buyer goes online, goes on the site, looks around, and decides not to purchase anything, you already have a valid email address to that purchaser. So even if they did not convert when they went online, you have a way of contacting them in the future to try to close the deal next time. 

So now your on the Coach Factory site, your logged in, and you begin to browse. What do you see? TACTIC 2: Incentives. The first incentive is (1) SALE ENDS: 1 Day, 3 Hours. This gives your viewers a sense of urgency; you have 27 Hours to engage in this special offer or your going to miss out. (2) Invite Friends for $10 off, 50% off of Everything, Free Shipping on $150+. So not only do they feel the urgency to purchase to get the 'Feel Good' savings, but they now have 3 incentives: 

• If they tell their friends about the sale, get an extra $10 off
• They have 27 hours left for 50% off of everything
• If they purchase $150+ they get free shipping (More Savings! Yay!)

So these viewers are going on this site, and they are being overwhelmed with all these good feeling: I got 50% off of a new purse, I got free shipping, Sally signed up and how I got an extra $10 saved! So the customer is feeling good and happy and engaging in the website doing EXACTLY what Coach Factory wants them to do:

1. Give us your email so in case you don't purchase now, we got the line in the water and can reel you in later.
2. Buy and buy NOW! They are pushing the sale with the time limitation
3. We will give you $10 for referring a friend because we will make money off of them and you.
4. Purchase over $150 and we will pay for the shipping. An incentive to a higher purchase.

So the customer feels good and happy about all the savings that they feel they are getting, and Coach Factory store is happy because the audience is engaging exactly as they planned. 

TACTIC 3: Reinforce the feel goods. Once you actually start to look at the products you see that they reinforce what Coach has been telling you since you got on their website: It's a good deal, engage. They show the picture of the handbag, the name, the regular price, the sale price, then the 50% limited time offer price in red. So you see a purse you like and it was originally $358, then now it is $279, but for the next day at 50% off it is $139.50. That 50% off price sounds a lot better than the original $358 retail price. Product placement is also influential during this marketing campaign. In the screen shot you will see that the most expensive purse is placed in the middle of the page, in between the two beige bags which make it stand out the most on the page. All the purses around this bag are the same price ($114.50) except the purse in the top right corner (which is where the most eye traffic goes naturally to the top right corner of any website, hence the reason it is always recommended to place your phone number and contact information there) which is the least expensive bag at $101.50.

There a many other tactics that are used on Coach Factory websites, along with other top named brands. To learn more, subscribe to the Tandem Interactive Blog and email me directly at BDiaz@Tandem-Interactive.com. 

'Them vs. Us' Marketing

Loyalty is a very powerful marketing tool to build your brand and its empire. Apple has used the same marketing tactic for years that has allowed their brand to grow to its position today. 

Scientific testing has proved that humans have a deep, unconscious longing to belong and fit in. Naturally, we want to be accepted and loved.  Because humans want to fit in we develop loyalty to to groups. By developing this loyalty to a group, we will then become emotionally attached to our group and in result set boundaries to distinguish that we are separate from other groups. Because we are naturally programmed to have this reasoning, Apple has found a marketing approach that has embraced this hardwired human characteristic. 

By allowing its users to develop a distinct division between 'them' (the PC users) and 'us' (the Mac users), Apple has created its own group with a sense of loyalty and making them prone to purchase their other products. For the past 30 years, Apple has made a distinction that we are different, we are not every other computer, we are Macs. Their video advertising has always shown the division between its users and the general public, reinstating this differences between its users and 'everyone else'. If you watch their videos ads you will see that there is little to no information on the actual product but just the reinforcement that their is a difference and the difference is you are either a robot just like everyone else or you a Mac. 

Some take-away's on how you can use the "Them vs. Us" Neuromarketing approach:

(1) Make a division : Find something that makes your business unique and different from your competitors. Teach your audience to embrace this difference and to be loyal to the difference. 

(2) Believe in your message : False advertising is not a foundation you should build your marketing strategy or your business on. But advertise relevant and TRUE statements about your brand. Make your audience believe in your message. Use different strategies to target your audience and show them that they fall in your business' division. 

(3) Embrace the separation : If you can create the division to your targeted audience telling them that they are different than the other groups they will believe in your message. Remind them of the difference, tell and show them directly and indirectly how they fall in your distinct group. Doing so will allow them to affiliate with your brand, increase your validity, and improve their status as a member of your 'group'.  

Subconscious Directional Cues

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 was the SFIMA Pubcon Summit in Davie, Florida. Some of the world's leading Internet marketers gave presentations on SEO, SEM, and Social Media Marketing. One of the most interesting presentation was given on Conversion Rate Optimization. In the lecture, they gave examples of how clear logos, toll-free phone numbers and visible shopping carts can give a boost in sales. They also showed that a strong return policy (if your site is E-Commerce) or a strong sense of Customer Service will help the audience to convert more easily. When you are trying to convince your audience to convert you should use 'directional cues'. This caught my attention when the subject was introduced because directional cues are a form of Neuromarketing. There are two forms of directional cues: (1) Implicit and (2) Explicit.

 

Implicit Directional Cues are those that are implied such as direction of view, color, visual weighting, prioritization, repetition of color, size or shape that engages your audience more. Explicit Directional Cues are very direct, they have arrows, lines, or curves showing them 'this is where your eyes should be'.

 

Although explicit directional cues are useful and obviously engage your audience they can sometimes be too overbearing. This is why it is important to constantly be testing your landing page to see what engages your audience most. Test your site using both implicit and explicit directional cues. For implicit use people then objects, what does your audience convert more on? If it is people, then test a single person or a family? A male or a female? White or ethnic? Older or Younger? The greatest 'take-away' that I had from the SFIMA Pubcon Summit was a quote by Paul Ryazanov that said "In God we trust, everything else we test". I believe that in marketing and especially Neuromarketing this is true.

 

Call my office 954-281-9995 or email me at BDiaz@Tandem-Interactive.com if you would like to have a meeting with me on some ideas for Landing Page Optimization or Conversion Rate Optimization using directional cues and Neuromarketing.

Discover Disney: Decoy Marketing?

NeuroMarketing is the newest and most advanced form of marketing available today. It has taken large businesses over 20+ years to accept the merge of science and marketing; and with this new merge, businesses are capable of targeting more engaged audiences.

 

Walt Disney is a World Wide name and well known brand. My recent interest towards visiting Disney this month gave me a surprise. Many of you know that from January to June every year Disney runs a special for Florida Residents called the 'Discover Disney' Ticket. The ticket is always available the beginning of January and expires in June when season begins. However, this year their marketing campaign showed they were running off of a NeuroMarketing tip.

 

Last year, in January 2012, Discover Disney was released to Florida Residents with two different ticket offers:

(1) 3-Day Pass: $99

(2) 4-Day Pass: $129

This year, Discover Disney was released again, however the pricing was different:

(1) 3-Day Pass: $119

(2) 4-Day Pass: $129

Although the pricing for the 4-Day pass stayed the same, the price for the 3-Day pass increased by $20. This approach is called 'Decoy Marketing'. They did not change the price of the second ticket, but, by increasing the price of the 1st option by $20 they made the option of the 4-Day ticket seem like a better buy. So by increasing the price of the first option (3-Day Pass) resulted in the increase of sales of the second option (4-Day Pass). By creating this 'Better Buy' idea to its targeted audience, more 4-Day passes were sold thus driving more money, sales, and an extended stay for these buyers. So it was an all around WIN for Disney with this new pricing.

 

Decoy Marketing can be a very powerful tool in marketing products as you can see with this example. To learn more about this technique, check out this link to Roger Dooley's 'Brainfluence' Blog about Decoy Marketing.

Neuromarketing: What the Brain has to do with Sales

For years, Marketers have always thought the key to sales was the right advertising and SEO. As we have seen in the past 5 years with the growth of technology and the progress of apps, SEO is not where marketing ends. Neuromarketing is the newest and most advance form of marketing that is beginning to surface across the globe. Before the study of Neuromarketing, we would never have associated science with sales. But this is definitely a cup of kool-aid you want to get your hands on.

Research has shown and explained to us throughout school that we only use 10% of our brain. Of the 10% of the brain that we use, 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. So the majority of businesses, marketers and advertisers are only stimulating 5% of their customers brain. So here are 5 tips to helping you market more towards your clients brains then just your brand:

1. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU : Don't focus about saying how great your product or service is, but tell your customer why your product is right for them. Let your product sell itself and people will come running.

2. GET TO THE POINT :  We live in a society that everything needs to be short, sweet, and to the point. Don't give your potential buyers the run around. They want to know what the product is and WHY THEY should buy it. We are impatient creatures and we don't want our time to be wasted, so sell it short and sweet.

3. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS :  Pintrest monopolized the market by doing less talking and more selling through visuals. What we see connects directly with our unconscious brains, which is exactly what you want to reach. Use pictures whenever possible to help sell concepts quickly and efficiently.

4. STRONG START; CAPTIVATING CLOSE : People usually remember the beginning and the ends of things more than the middle. So make sure that you start and end strong, this can make or break the deal.

5. SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY : Do not be to bold or dramatic, your brain wants simplicity. Statistics have shown that too many options when a person is looking to purchase an item can cut sales dramatically because they get overwhelmed and confused with so many options. Make the decision easy for the customer so they engage in it, and always make them feel like they are making the right choice.